THE PALADIN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1324, 30 December 1911, Page 12

THE PALADIN.

SKETCH OF DOWNES, OTAGO, [Br Gvito.] Dark, medium-height, and splendidly built, rather.handsome .in appearance, extremely active on his feet, and able to do almost anything with his hands—from off-bToaks to fighting—that is Alec. Downes 1 , paladin of New Zealand cricket. Or rather, that was Downes, for he must bo now somewhere about io years of age, and he comes into shield cricket no longer as a Triton among minnows. Still, he has.been "doing things" in the present shield match in Christchureh and. ho will likely bo still "doing things" when lie-is 70, for he is a remarkably well-preserved young-old man is Alec. Downes.

Often and often the present writer, standing as umpire at Downes's end in Dunedin matches has wondered, not so much what he could mako tho ball "do," but as to whether there was anything in the whole encyclopedia which ho could not make it do. To see him bowl was to /realise what could bo done with tho leather in flight, and length, and spin, for he wheeled them down with a somewhat horrible left-to-right twizzlc, and a 'bit of a vertical spin too, which •made them jump off inthe'suddenest .fashion. Sometimes, tho bails we.ro Hying long before the batsman, had shaped for the stroke. On tho liutHing wickets which reigned in Dunedin until some seven years ago, he was georally ' unplayable.. On a stickyi turf it was hardly worth while going in, for it only meant a sorry- pilgrilnngo there And back, and, in -front of ■ a crowd, such inglorious tramps are trying enough. On the best of turf you had to.wateh every hall right up to the bat, for no two were alike, and (as a representative Canterbury man onco said) "you can bo n,s well set "as y6u-like, but you never know the minute when Downes is. going to have you out." Of course, oil paper, any sort of break is' easy, and fabulous breaks often appear in cricket reports. When some quidnunc in Adelaide, used to write, week after week, that "George CI iff en again maintained his uniform break of 2ft." dry old Harry Trott remarked, with caustic and emphasis: "It's a woudor-it doesn't break his jaw." I do-not know what the great Victorian would'have said about press reports on Downes, for I havo seen tho Dunedin bowler turn anything, from 3ft. to l.Uu., to plain straight. Also I saw him put out the same Horry Trott's Australian eleven (1897 I think) for A 5, towards which the only doublefiguro score was Trumblc's 28. 'There was no question that day about how far a bowler could break. Break, of course, is nothing without variation and length, and Downes had all that. The joke on the old North Ground, Dunedin, was that "Downes could pitch em with Ins eyes shut." Some said that jf an ordinary saucer were put down on tho pitch, he could hit it twelve time.? out of twelve. I think he could, I saw him, .one night at practice (for a wa"er) strike a little roll of paper about the size of a cork, three times out of four shots.

Ichabod has, of course, long been written over Downcs's. batting, but what a caution ho was when at his best. He had every stroke in the book, and it is difficult to say whether his terribly-quick late cut through Ihe slips, or his somewhat diabolical-straight drive over the fence was the stroke that most lowered the morale of the side against him. In one match (against Wellington) when Otngo's batting was falling to the dogs, and the whole side were looking white he went in with his characteristic brisk walk, and spanked fi.l runs in 25 minutes, lhe bowlers were-Upham and A'shbnlt— almost the, best pair of Now Zealand trundlers who have ever wheeled up the deadly, littlo onmson globe. In billiards, in conversation, in good-fellowship—.even in an encounter with irresponsible brawlers in the streetit seems to me, as I look back on it all, to have been always the same great Drones. In football—l am speaking from long knowledge of the game—ho was the best centre three-quarter who ever-donned jersey, for he was tho only New Zealand "centre" wlw was consistently able to "run straight" and always come through his man. This arguable mailer nwxl not be further pursued, the Only pity wing that (owing to circumstances over which Downcs had no control whatever) more of him has not been seen in the (North Island both in cricket and football.

Before the question W Downes ,is man ■and bon camarade one is apt to halt. Perhaps the best thing that can be said is that, after any great occasion at the old Carisbrook ground—and they wero many— the tuft-hunters would always be round Alec, in hundreds, either lo shake his hand, or to "shout" for him. And then Alec, seeing some old and possibly plebifln crony standing far back iii the surge, would get through to him, and with the familiar fine smile on his handfome face, would rty; "I think we can get 'em out again all right. Don't you?